


The C-Word

by jazzlauren



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: 3x17, Ava's a clone (don't say clone), Canon Compliant, F/F, Gen, Implied Avalance, the clarification Ava (and we) deserved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:13:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22883830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jazzlauren/pseuds/jazzlauren
Summary: „You don’t understand. You are exceptional, “ Rip said.“Don’t, Rip. Just don’t.”Ava moved to leave the parlour but Rip stepped in her way.“Wait, Ava. Please hear me out.”ORThe missing conversation between Rip and Ava in episode 3x17 where he explains everything to her.
Relationships: Sara Lance/Ava Sharpe
Comments: 4
Kudos: 54





	The C-Word

**Author's Note:**

> Hello dear reader,  
> sooo this is my first fanfiction for Legends of Tomorrow and also my first fanfiction in English.  
> If anything is amiss, it's most likely because it's not beta'd and because English is not my native language. Feedback would be appreciated.  
> Nevertheless, I hope you have fun reading.  
> Enjoy :)

„You don’t understand. You are exceptional, “ Rip said. 

“Don’t, Rip. Just don’t.” Ava moved to leave the parlour but Rip stepped in her way. 

“Wait, Ava. Please hear me out.” 

Ava stopped dead in her tracks, hands clasped behind her back, gaining a perfectly professional demeanor. “I think we’re finished.” 

“No, we’re not. Listen, Ava. You may not be the first one I picked for the job at the time bureau, but you are exceptional. Let me tell me your story. Please?” 

Ava sighed. She should really just leave but a huge part of her wanted to know. “You have five minutes.” She sat on the rim of the armchair and raised an eyebrow. Rip watched her, kneading his hands. “Well, I’m listening. Clock’s ticking.” 

Rip looked at his feet when he finally began to speak. “Okay. So. When I first started the time bureau, I was in sore need of an agent I could trust blindly. At some point, I started this project in 2210. I was involved in a small company that promised to ensure humanity’s prosperity. It promised a future without violence. It was a company that collected the DNA of many different women over the years. Out of this pool of DNA, they created the perfect woman. Their next step was to clone her to watch over the citizens of Star City. I thought it might be a way to stop Vandal Savage.” 

Ava looked at her watch. “Four minutes, Rip.” 

“Well, it wasn’t but that’s not the point now. When I left in 2211, the small companyp had grown into a corporation that could sustain itself and I left. The last intel I had on the clones was that the AVA was a woman incapable of feeling anything. Her first memory is waking up as a clone, her second is receiving her lifelong commands that are implanted in her brain during creation. There is nothing else for her to think of aside of her task. The first clone wasn’t especially created for the time bureau, I simply chose an AVA whose task was to follow new and flexible assignments and not only those given at her creation. She failed. During an assault in the Middle Ages, she got involved in a sword fight and I witnessed that the first AVA wasn’t capable of fighting without special assignments for her every move. She wasn’t autonomous enough.” 

“Three minutes.” 

“Since then I ordered my AVA agents to be created especially for me and my purposes. As you know, the next ten failed too, sooner or later. They all had a thing in common: They weren’t able to learn. They had tasks and that was it. But there was nothing we could do different anymore. After eleven fails, the AVA corporation run out of options for the clones. They had tried everything to make them perfect in following rules but there is only so much you can do to give an artificial human free will.” 

Ava cringed at that. Artificial human. That was what she was. Her manufactured heart throbbed at that. 

Rip was oblivious to her reaction. He paced the parlour, lost in his story. “There was only one alteration left. So I ordered the twelfth AVA. You.” Finally, he turned and looked at Ava directly. “And I wiped your memory with the flasher. You shouldn’t remember that you were a clone and that you had a task to fulfill. Instead I employed actors to act as your parents and planted false memories into your brain. You have lasted longer than any of your predecessors, Ava. All of your memories of the time bureau are real, you have to believe me.” 

“But… the assessment center…” Ava had difficulty to think. Her head hurt and there were so many emotions that she shouldn’t be able to feel at the same time. When she remembered how she had felt a year ago, then the memory was somehow black and white. There weren’t many emotions linked to the memories. It must have been a slow progress for her to gain the ability to feel emotions, she thought. 

“It really happened. I organized the assessment center even if it was clear from the beginning that I would pick you. I let you start in a lesser position than the other clones because I wasn’t sure how my… experiment would work out. You worked your way to your current position all by yourself, Ava. Those memories are true. You have to believe me.” 

“But there’s no difference between my memories of my fifteenth birthday and the assessment center. They both seem equally true to me.” 

“I’m very sorry for that, Ava. I guess my handiwork was just too good.” 

“Now’s not the time for quipping, Rip.” 

“Right. Where was I?” 

“The assessment center.” 

“Ah, yes. I noticed that you developed, Ava. Suddenly, there was kindness in your judgement, or you got exasperated when Gary spoke to you. That was new. The AVAs before you didn’t express such emotions. They just did their job. Of course, it was hard to spot if you weren’t watching as closely as I was and I doubt that any other agent even noticed that the Agent Ava Sharpe changed at all even during the replacements. 

And then, I saw you with Sara. You were kissing.” 

“That’s not creepy at all, that you were watching us”, Ava remarked drily. 

“You don’t understand. I was so surprised. You, a clone,” Ava couldn’t help it, she cringed again. “created for senseless fulfilling of tasks were kissing somebody. I saw your expression afterwards. I could literally see the love radiating off of you. You did this, Ava. You taught yourself how to feel, how to love. When you were created, you were like an empty vessel, but you filled it just by yourself like a child does. This makes you human, Ava. Maybe even more human than most adults are.” 

Ava pondered this. Did it make she human that she learned how to feel? What about her artificial body? Didn’t this make her mind artificial, too? She rubbed her temples. It was simply too much to take. 

“And how is it that the perfect woman is a lesbian?”, Ava inquired, doubting. 

“That is a riddle I yet have to find an answer to. I mean, why is anybody gay or bi or straight or whatever they are? Truly, I don’t know.” There was silent for a moment when both followed their respective thoughts. Rip pondered the question about sexuality, while Ava’s thoughts were a tangled mess. She burrowed her head in her hands. “Do you have any memories about your sexuality?”, Rip asked eventually. 

“Shouldn’t you know that? I mean, you are the one who gave me the majority of my past.” 

“I know that I didn’t. It is not something that is needed for you to think your past is… real. You weren’t supposed to have friends to talk about your first kisses or something. But how did you know that you are a lesbian?” 

“I just know. But… you know, I really don’t have any memories concerning my sexuality. I didn’t think about it at all… until working with Sara.” A thought struck Ava. She had had her first kiss with Sara, and her first sex too, without knowing it. Somehow, she had assumed that there were others because of her age but it hadn’t seemed off to her that she hasn’t any memories of her first time. Or any times afterwards. 

Sara. How could she ever talk to her again? There were thousands of herself. Ava knew that Sara would never be able to love her when she was so easily replaceable. It hurt so much in her heart; Ava wouldn’t have thought it was possible. She felt tears emerging and stood up. 

“Thanks for telling me, Rip”, she said and fled the parlour. She had no idea what she should do now. The knowledge weighed her down, slowed her thoughts down like a virus on a computer that overheats the CPU. She wiped her tears, angry at herself for crying. She needed to get out of here. 

Gideon interrupted Ava when she was about to open a portal to the Time Bureau. “Sara wants all of you on the bridge. Team Meeting concerning Amaya’s village and Mallus.” 

Ava sighed. Could she really leave now? The legends needed her. She straightened her back and clasped her hands behind it. She could do it. She still had the rules. It was her duty to help the Legends fight Mallus and her duty she could do. After all, it was what she’d been created for.


End file.
